Why Are We Strangely Attracted to This Minivan That Claims to Not Be a Minivan?

Keith Tanner said:

Driven5 said:

Which would you rather be stuck behind?

I can always pass if I need to.

Except when you can't.  Like on 95% of the 2-lane roads in the entire state of Pennsylvania.

All I know is that I towed right up to the 3500lb limit on my Sienna a number of times, and I never felt tempted to go over it.  There just wasn't enough braking capacity, and the suspension was way too soft even with airbags in the rear.  The motor did an admirable job though.

Keith Tanner said:

I think Americans over-emphasize towing capacity in purchase decisions because they are not willing to change their driving style while towing an exceptional load, and this means massively oversized vehicles being driven around on a regular basis.

I can't say that I agree on either stereotype, that Americans who tow aren't willing to change their driving habits, nor that this is the reason for so many massively oversized and underutilized vehicles on the road.

The rating system that has been mandated does not require as substantial of a change in driving habits, and liability concerns prevents most people from substantially exceeding that. Not being willing to change, and not needing to change are two very different things. Nobody has ever actually asked me if I would be willing to have a graduated towing scale, where the legal towing capacity of any give vehicle on any given day is determined by the speed I'm willing to drive it. However, I see zero fault in NOT wanting to be excessively speed limited when the load, tongue weight, and stability don't actually warrant doing so. .

For example, taking my Sedona tow rating from a 3500 lb US towing capacity to a 4400 lb UK towing capacity is simply a bad-deal to me if I'm still restricted to 50mph max when running an American style <3500 pounds, 10% tongue, electric brakes, and WD/sway control. But if I could cut my max towing speed to <50mph (even though I'd actually still be more stable than Euro-spec) only for those times I want/need to legally pull 3500-4400 lb, that would be absolutely fine with me.

And of the massively oversized for how they're used 99% of the time vehicles I see on the road, they are more likely to be spec'd out in max off-road/bro configuration than max towing configuration. This indicates to me that towing capacity was not the driving factor in the selection of that size of vehicle. In fact, based on the people I've known and met with massively oversized for how the use them vehicles, I would be willing to argue that it's more common for people to buy such a massively oversized vehicle expressly for the intention of being able to do that extra 1% of stuff hauling in their life without having to pull (and store/rent) a trailer to do so.